Virgin are still avoiding answering questions on price gouging

Two days after our deadline, Virgin Airlines have yet to answer the North West Star questions about their price gouging activities in North West Queensland.

The four questions we asked came after Hamish Griffin made a Facebook post complaining of Virgin’s $900 plus fares from Cloncurry at a time when the roads were cut off.

Our questions were

“1. Isn't Hamish right, Virgin have deliberately lifted fares to take advantage of stranded residents with no other way of getting in and out?

2. Apparently Viigin are calling the $974 one way ticket from Cloncurry to Townsville a "special offer". In what way is this special?

3. How come on the same day Virgin can offer flights under $100 on many of the east coast routes.

4. Isn't Hamish right this is shameful price gouging?”

Virgin did respond after the deadline however did not directly answer of the questions.

“Virgin Australia is committed to providing competitive airfares and we continually review our pricing on all routes. Airfares on any given route are driven by a number of different factors including time of booking, customer demand, operating costs and third party costs such as airport pricing and taxes,” an airline spokesperson said.

“We always encourage people to book as early as possible and take advantage of “Happy Hour” or our “Best Fares” page on our website to access the cheapest fares available.

“Virgin Australia uses remarketing tools on Facebook where an airfare viewed on the Virgin Australia website, for travel on a particular date and fare type, can reappear on that person’s Facebook feed.”

This statement was almost identical to what they provided to other media and in response to Hamish’s post.

However it did not directly answer of the four questions we asked and we have sent the questions again to Virgin.